Parkside rape defendant's trial to stay in Wicomico

The trial for a young man charged in the rape of a fellow student at Parkside High School will stay in Wicomico County, a judge ruled Thursday.

Jocori Scarborough's defense attorney, Eduardo Gonzalez, filed a motion to transfer the venue, citing what he said was significant pretrial media publicity in the case. The trial is set for Sept. 17-18 in Wicomico County Circuit Court.

Scarborough, now 18, of Delmar, is facing charges of second-degree rape, false imprisonment, second-degree assault and related charges from the incident, alleged to have occurred May 5 at Parkside High School. He also faces a charge of possessing a regulated firearm while under the age of 21 dating back to May 6.

Wicomico County Senior Assistant State's Attorney Karen Dean cited a Maryland rule that states in order to change the venue for a case not involving the death penalty –– such as this one –– the court must find that it's true or there are reasonable grounds to believe there wouldn't be a fair trial.

Judge Leah Jane Seaton decided the jury selection process should be enough to ensure a fair trial in this case. The jury panel isasked a series of questions to help lawyers determine whether the prospective jurors can be fair.

The case could still be transferred to another county if a jury was unable to be chosen following the selection process.

Gonzalez spoke of the amount of articles in The Daily Times and on an unspecified blog, and he said he felt not all of the coverage was fact-based reporting.

He mentioned The Daily Times ran editorials, in addition to a headline that questioned how a 15-year-old could be raped in her school. He also brought up how a Daily Times article reported there was video footage showing the suspect grabbing the victim, but a later article corrected that.

In May, Sgt. David Owens claimed he had been incorrectly quoted in reference to the video. He said the surveillance video does not show the girl being moved, grabbed or dragged by the suspect.

Some media coverage would be expected, Gonzalez said, but he felt the coverage made it so that Scarborough won't get a fair trial in Wicomico County.

"This case was a different animal, your honor," Gonzalez said.

Dean argued there wasn't reasonable evidence that the media coverage saturated the community. Although she doesn't read the newspaper, Dean said to her knowledge, media coverage hadn't been above that of other serious cases.

She said the state was opposed to having the venue changed.

Seaton took a recess to read articles presented to her by the defense before making her decision that the case could stay in Wicomico County.

A group of people supporting Scarborough were at the courthouse on Thursday, some of whom wore shirts with the text "Justice 4 Jocori" on them. Seaton said shirts such as those, for either side, won't be permitted during the trial.